


Centreshot

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [534]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 03:36:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13849260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: for the Valentine's Day TAG fic swap.  for @samanthalexistracy





	Centreshot

Whatever he had been expecting, this wasn’t it. “I did tell you to wear shoes you could run in,” Jane teased as she cinched the chest plate tight around Scott’s ribs.

“I guess I was expecting a jog around the park, a forest walk, hell, a trip to Jurassic World!” He grinned at her light laugh. “Not paintball.”

“You served.  I’m sure you know how to shoot.”

“Ye- _es_ ,” Scott drawled, dragging out the syllable.  “But I’m not totally sold on the idea that I’m shooting  _you_.”

The last buckle yanked tight enough that Scott yelped.  “Correction,” she said sweetly.  “You’re going to  _try_  to shoot me.  And besides, us on opposite sides was the only way to make the teams equal.”  She clapped him on the back and before he could blink she reached up on tiptoe to peck a kiss to his cheek.  “Happy hunting.”

Scott touched his gloved fingers to his cheek as she disappeared through the milling crowd.  “Yo, Tracy!”  He turned at the sound of his name, nodding at the man Jane had shoved him at only ten minutes before.  “We’re up!”

The start line was a wooden fort, gates set into the pallisade opening out onto a grassy clearing. Beyond that, the trees descended down a shallow slope.  Scott looked along the serried rows of plays until he spotted Jane.  She winked at him as their eyes met, and blew him a kiss.  He caught it just as the starting whistle blew, and it took him precious seconds to realized they’d started.  By then, Jane was halfway across the clearing and accelerating for the safety of the tree line.

Scott growled as he realized he’d been played, and chased after her.

It was cooler in the dappled shade, the thick carpet of pine needles beneath his sneakers absorbing the sound of people.  He caught sight of shadows, the other players fanning out looking for allies and prey. Scott knew his target, sure he was catching the hint of a blonde pony tail up ahead.

He’d trained as a pilot; field manoeuvres were a barely remembered element of his training.  But the paintball gun reminded him of the training weapons, and the forest was similar to the camp in Germany where he’d done his survival training.  It was coming back to him, how to move so as not to be seen, how to use shadow and light to his advantage.

The paintball gun made a hollow  _phut-phut-phut_  sound as he took out a knot of three from Jane’s team as he passed, his shot leaving aqua-blue splashes across their dull grey body armour.

He kept moving, leaving their groans and cheerful curses behind as he pursued his target.  She seemed to be heading for a little dell of more tightly packed trees and he followed, his steps speeding up slightly as he closed in on his prey.

Jane had served as well; he should have remembered that.  As it was, the light shell helmet she’d plonked on his head took the worse of the blows, but they still hit hard enough to make him flinch and trip.

He sprawled in the leaf litter, looking up to see Jane braced on a high brace, backlit by the dappled sunlight so that she looked like nothing so much as an avenging angel.  She leveled her weapon at him, swinging out a little onto the branch.  “Yield?” she asked sweetly.

Scott started laughing, a deep belly laugh that sent him rolling slightly in the leaves.  “Well played, well played. But Jane dear?”

“Yes Scott dear?”

Scott rolled back, revealing his finger on the trigger.  He lifted his gun one-handed and fired wildly.  Three aqua splotches bloomed across her chest, and she yelled as the impacts shattered her balance and she toppled off the bough down onto the ground next to him.  “Now we’re even,” he told her as her head popped up, spitting leaves and dirt.

She blew the leaves at him, a raspberry sound that made him laugh again.  His laugh settled into a low rumble of approval as she lifted herself up to rest against his chest, nudging her nose against his as she stole a sweet kiss.


End file.
